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A Dreamy First F:light for the RSC
The Royal Shakespeare Company is the first production company to reap the benefits of the first automation-linked lighting control system that has been designed by Stage Technologies.
The recent production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Novello Theatre implemented the innovative F:light system, which allows moving lights to follow the motion of automated scenery and performers, whilst remaining fully under the lighting designer's control. The system enabled technical staff to finely tune the lighting of the aerial scenes and maximise magical effects - in this case, Titania, Oberon and Bottom taking to the air in the aura of a striking full moon.
Often flying effects are used in situations that require highly accurate lighting in order not to reveal the trick. As arguably the original architects of 3-D automated flying, Stage Technologies recognised that there was a distinct gap between lighting and automation. The F:light concept came about to bridge that gap, ensuring that lights and automation can be programmed to synchronise where required.
Simple to configure, F:light uses real-time automation data to follow objects accurately as they move, not just with pan and tilt but also with constant beam-size. F:light acts as an additional lighting console, providing seamless focus information to any fixture on demand. The system is as useful for following stage trucks and flying scenery as it is for complicated 3-D moves and performer flying.
Tim Mitchell worked as lighting designer on the original production of Gregory Doran's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Stratford theatre in 2005, as well as later productions, including this most recent one at the Novello Theatre in London, and he is enthusiastic about the F:light technology.
"In the pre-F:light productions, we had to manually input the lighting and modify it during the performance as the full moon tracked across the stage. It took a lot of time, there was a lot of guesswork involved and the accuracy wasn't always 100%. F:light made things a truckload easier, in fact after a while I realised that I just wasn't thinking about the background process any more because F:light was doing all that for me. When you have 60-odd moving lights and need to turn the tracking on and off, a box of tricks like this lets you focus on the more important stuff, like making the show look great."
The F:light technology used by the Royal Shakespeare Company was guided by an Illusionist desk, but is equally accessible by users of automation systems controlled by Stage Technologies Solos, Nomads, or Acrobats.
11th March 2009
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